Assessing computing environment changes using specification documents

ABSTRACT

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a system analyzes an environment specification document that specifies a proposed configuration of a full-stack environment for a computing system and that describes infrastructure, middleware, and application elements. The system correlates the environment specification document with an environment instantiated on the computing system from the environment specification document. The system determines an impact of changes in the proposed configuration on the environment instantiated on the computing system, and configures the computing system in accordance with the proposed configuration based on the determined impact. Embodiments of the present invention further include a method and computer program product for analyzing an environment specification document in substantially the same manners described above.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/754,130, entitled “ASSESSING COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT CHANGES USINGSPECIFICATION DOCUMENTS” and filed Jun. 29, 2015, the disclosure ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Present invention embodiments relate to configuring computingenvironments, and more specifically, to assessing the impact of changesto computing environments described by environment specificationdocuments.

An environment specification document describes one or more elements ofa computing environment. A full-stack environment specification documentis an environment specification document that describes a full-stackcomputing environment, including infrastructure (e.g., computingsystems, storage volumes, networks, etc.), optional middleware (e.g.,database management system, web server, etc.), and one or moreapplications. A virtual full-stack environment may be created (e.g., ona cloud computing system) from a full-stack environment specificationdocument using orchestration tools (e.g., HEAT, etc.) to configure thevirtual architecture and automatic software deployment tools (e.g., IBMUrbanCode Deploy, Chef, etc.) to deploy middleware and applications.Each environment specification document may include other environmentspecification documents (e.g. to describe components of theenvironment). Environment specification documents may be versioned,shared, and managed like source code. Any element of a running virtualenvironment may be updated by changing the document used to create itand applying the changed document to the environment. However, applyingchanges may adversely impact services provided by the environment. Theeffect of changes may be difficult to predict because of potentiallycomplex chains of dependencies among environment specificationdocuments, environments created from them, services provided by thoseenvironments, and the value of those services.

SUMMARY

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a system analyzesan environment specification document that specifies a proposedconfiguration of a full-stack environment for a computing system andthat describes infrastructure, middleware, and application elements. Thesystem correlates the environment specification document with anenvironment instantiated on the computing system from the environmentspecification document. The system determines an impact of changes inthe proposed configuration on the environment instantiated on thecomputing system, and configures the computing system in accordance withthe proposed configuration based on the determined impact.

An advantage of the system is to allow users to preview the impact ofenvironment specification changes before the changes are applied torunning environments. Furthermore, by leveraging the full-stackenvironment specification documents used to generate the actualenvironments (rather than static descriptions), the impact of potentialchanges can be assessed with an unprecedented level of validity andspecificity.

According to a further embodiment, the system may determine the impactof the proposed changes based on dependencies of the instantiatedenvironment, usage patterns within the instantiated environment, andvalue of transactions performed within the instantiated environment anddependent environments. This embodiment provides the advantage ofallowing users to preview the end-to-end impact of the proposed changesfrom specification documents, through the layers of the environment, tothe value of services provided by the environment (e.g., the impact onconsumers of the services, the value derived from consumer usage, etc.).

According to another embodiment, the system analyzes results accumulatedfrom instantiations of prior proposed configurations to learniteratively from the impacts from those prior proposed configurations,and determines the impact of the changes in the proposed configurationbased on the accumulated learned impacts from the prior proposedconfigurations. This embodiment allows the system to improve its impactassessment over time by learning from the results of past changes (e.g.,the amount of downtime incurred by various types of changes).

According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the systemmay provide for editing the environment specification document toinclude one or more proposed configuration changes to the environmentfor the computing system. The system dynamically determines an impactfor each proposed configuration change to the environment instantiatedon the computing system in response to entry of the proposedconfiguration change within the environment specification document. Thisembodiment provides the user an opportunity to revert the change inlight of the impact.

Embodiments of the present invention further include a method andcomputer program product for analyzing an environment specificationdocument in substantially the same manners described above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Generally, like reference numerals in the various figures are utilizedto designate like components.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of an example environment for anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example configuration module accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an example manner of deploying afull-stack environment according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example manner of revising anenvironment specification document according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an example user interface indicating apredicted impact of a proposed change to an environment specificationdocument according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example manner of applying arevised environment specification document according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an example user interface indicating apredicted impact of applying a revised environment specificationdocument according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Present invention embodiments relate to configuring computingenvironments and assessing the impact of changes to the environments.For example, an embodiment may associate an environment specificationdocument with running virtual systems generated from it and transactionsperformed on those generated systems. The embodiment may track technicaldependencies (e.g., which environment specification documents were usedto generate which virtual systems, which applications run which virtualsystems, etc.), usage patterns (e.g., the roles and numbers of users ofa system and the applications running on it, the number of transactionsand nature of transactions on a system, etc.), the value of transactionsthat take place on a system, and the like. The embodiment may determinethe impact of applying a modified environment specification document torunning systems on the basis of the technical dependencies, usagepatterns, and value. In addition, an embodiment of the present inventionmay accumulate analytical insights dynamically and iteratively over timeto tune modeling the impact of changes on running systems and thetransactions they support.

During the process of editing an environment specification document, aneditor tool may actively monitor a user's changes to the specificationand provide a real-time impact assessment and alert the user if thechange is deemed severe or risky. This prompt feedback gives the user anopportunity to revert a change before the change is saved and/or appliedto an instance of an environment.

In addition, or alternatively, guidance may be provided when a user isready to provision (apply) an environment specification document (e.g.,a previously edited and saved version of the document).

In an example scenario, a company uses an environment specificationdocument that provisions two servers. The first server contains adatabase that is used to store customer information. The second serveris used to host the company's retail sales web application, which usesthe database server for customer information. The company's performanceteam determines that they can increase performance of their webapplication by adding extra temporary space. An engineer in a jointdevelopment and operations (or “DevOps”) team, which maintains theenvironment specification document, adds a 50 GB volume specification tothe web application server using a configuration tool. According to anembodiment of the present invention, the engineer may see in theuser-interface of the configuration tool that the addition of a volumeto the server is a non-destructive change. The engineer may also seethat the overall impact severity of the change is low. As a result, theengineer may immediately apply the change to the running environment.

In another example scenario, the company's test team finds a bug in theweb application. The test team updates the environment specificationdocument to specify a new version number for the application. Anembodiment determines that this update requires the web application tobe taken off line, and, because the system will be unavailable duringthe update, the impact severity is high. As a result, the team maydecide to schedule the update at a time that will affect the leastnumber of users.

An example environment for present invention embodiments is illustratedin FIG. 1. Specifically, the environment includes one or more targetcomputing systems 110, configuration server systems 120, client orend-user systems 130, document storage systems 140, and databases 160.The systems may be remote from each other and communicate over a network12. Network 12 may be implemented by any number of any suitablecommunications media (e.g., wide area network (WAN), local area network(LAN), Internet, intranet, etc.). Alternatively, any number of targetcomputing systems 110, configuration server systems 120, client orend-user systems 130, document storage systems 140, and databases 160may be local to each other and communicate via any appropriate localcommunication medium (e.g., local area network (LAN), hardwire, wirelesslink, intranet, etc.).

Target computing system 110 includes one or more full-stack computingenvironments 150. Each full-stack computing environment 150 comprisesinfrastructure 152 (e.g., computing systems, storage, networking, etc.),(optionally) middleware 154 (e.g., database management system, webserver, etc.), and one or more applications 156. The infrastructurecomprises various elements (e.g., computing systems, storage volumes,networks, etc.), which may be any combination of real and/or virtualelements running on pooled physical resources (e.g., processors,memories, storage devices, network components, etc.) of the targetcomputing system. A target computing system may comprise local and/orremote physical resources.

Configuration server system 120 includes configuration module 122,orchestration and deployment tools 124, and monitor module 126. Theconfiguration module, orchestration and deployment tools, and monitormodule may be implemented across plural server systems. Alternatively,the configuration module, orchestration and deployment tools, andmonitor module may reside on a client system 130, target computingsystem 110, or other computer system(s) in communication with the targetcomputing system.

Client systems 130 may enable users (e.g., customers) to communicatewith an application 156 (e.g., a retail application) and may enableusers (e.g., development/operations personnel) to communicate withconfiguration module 122 (e.g., via network 12). The client systems mayinclude a client module (e.g., a web browser, custom client application,etc.) presenting any graphical user (e.g., GUI, etc.) or other interface(e.g., command line prompts, menu screens, etc.) to receive commandsfrom users and interact with an application 156, configuration module122, and/or other modules or services.

Document storage system 140 may be used to store one or more full-stackenvironment specification documents, each of which may comprise anynumber of component environment specification documents. Documentstorage system 140 may be implemented as a version control system orother conventional or custom document storage technology. Database 160may be implemented using a conventional or other database managementsystem or other data storage system to store information used to assessthe impact of applying proposed changes to a full-stack environment 150.

Configuration server systems 120 and client systems 130 may beimplemented by any conventional or other computer systems preferablyequipped with a display or monitor, a base (e.g., including at least oneprocessor 20, memories 30 and/or internal or external network interfaceor communications devices 10 (e.g., modem, network cards, etc.)),optional input devices (e.g., a keyboard, mouse, or other input device),and any commercially available and custom software (e.g., databasesoftware, version control software, web browser software, web serversoftware, cloud computing orchestration software, software deploymentsoftware, etc.)).

A block diagram of an example configuration module 122 and associatedobjects according to an embodiment of the present invention isillustrated in FIG. 2. In particular, configuration module 122 maycomprise editor module 212, apply module 214, and assessment module 216,and may interact directly or indirectly with target computing system110, orchestration and deployment tools 124, monitor module 126,dependency data 262, and activity data 264.

Editor module 212 creates or modifies one or more environmentspecification documents 240, which the configuration module may store toand retrieve from document storage system 140. Environment specificationdocument 240 may have any conventional or other form. For example, thedocument may be a Heat Orchestration Template (HOT), CloudFormationtemplate, IBM PureSystems template, or the like. Environmentspecification document 240 may include (e.g., by reference) one or moreother environment specification documents (e.g., specifying elements ofthe environment).

Apply module 214 creates or updates a full stack environment 150 on thetarget system from an environment specification document 240 with theuse of orchestration and deployment tools 124, which may be anyconventional or other tools for infrastructure orchestration andsoftware deployment (e.g., HEAT, IBM UrbanCode Deploy, Chef, etc.). Theapply module may record dependency data 262 (e.g., in database 160). Thedependency data comprises information associating the created or updatedenvironment with the environment specification document it was createdor updated from. For example, the dependency data may comprise a tableof records having a document attribute referring to an environmentspecification document and version number in document storage system 140and an environment attribute referring a full stack environment createdfrom the document.

Assessment module 216 accesses dependency data 262 and activity data 264to predict the impact of applying a changed environment specificationdocument to an existing full stack environment 110 (e.g., before anedited document is saved to the document storage system or before a newsaved version is applied to the environment). Activity data 264comprises information about activity of full-stack environment 150 ontarget computing system 110 (e.g., usage of an application 156). Monitormodule may collect this information (e.g., from the target computingsystem) and store activity data 264 (e.g., in database 160).

The configuration module and associated modules and tools may includeone or more other modules or units (e.g., document browser module, etc.)to perform the various functions of present invention embodimentsdescribed herein (e.g., accessing environment specification documents,storing environment specification documents, etc.), may be implementedby any combination of any quantity of software and/or hardware modulesor units, and may reside within memory 30 of a configuration serversystem, target computing system, client system, and/or other computingsystems or servers for execution by processor 20.

An example manner of deploying a full stack environment according to anembodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 3. Initially,configuration module 122 creates a full-stack environment 150 on atarget system 110 based on a full-stack environment specificationdocument at step 310. In addition, the configuration module recordsinformation associating the full-stack environment specificationdocument and the resulting full-stack environment.

A user may, for example, select a full-stack environment specificationdocument from a document storage system 140 (e.g., by browsing thedocument storage system via the configuration module), select aparticular target computing system, and elect to create a newenvironment on the target computing system from the document.Alternatively, the user may create a new full-stack environmentspecification document or modify an existing one (e.g., via editormodule 212), store the new document to document storage system 140, andelect to create an environment from the new or modified document on aparticular target computing system. As a result, apply module 214creates (e.g., using orchestration and deployment tools 124) a newinstance of a full-stack environment on the target computing system inaccordance with the full-stack environment specification document.

Apply module 214 records information associating the full-stackenvironment specification document and the resulting full-stackenvironment. For example, apply module 214 may store dependency data 262to database 160 upon receiving confirmation from orchestration anddeployment tools 124 that the environment was created successfully. Inan alternative embodiment, the orchestration and deployment tools 124may be adapted to store dependency data 262.

Activity of the full stack environment 150 is monitored, and informationabout this activity (e.g., activity data 264) is recorded (e.g., indatabase 160) at step 320. Monitoring and recording of the activity maybe performed using conventional or other tools (e.g., database loggingtools, web application logging tools, cloud system monitoring tools,etc.) internal and/or external to the target computing system and thefull-stack environment. Monitor module 126 may access (e.g.,asynchronously at regular intervals, in real-time, on-demand byassessment module 216, etc.) the recorded activity (e.g., database(s)used by application(s) 156, database logs, web server logs, webapplication logs, cloud monitoring records, etc.) to form and storeactivity data 264 to be used by assessment module 216.

The monitored activity may include changes or other events affectingenvironments and the effects of those events on the environments. Theresulting data may be used (e.g., by monitor module 126 and assessmentmodule 216) to improve modeling of the effects of potential changes.Accordingly, the system may learn iteratively from results accumulatedover time for a given environment specification type, improving itsanalysis. For example, if a change in an environment specification wouldresult in a change to a running environment (e.g., a change in theoperating system version of a virtual instance) that would render thesystem unavailable, the assessment module may estimate the amount oftime the system is expected to be unavailable based upon data from priorchanges that resulted in the system being unavailable. This estimate maybecome more accurate over time as the monitor module gathers informationfrom repeated down-time-related events.

At step 330, the full-stack environment specification document (orcomponent thereof) may be revised, and the revision may be applied to afull-stack environment 150 created from a previous version of thedocument. In the course of determining whether and how to revise aspecification document or apply a revised specification document, theimpact of proposed changes may be assessed based on the storedinformation associating specification documents with the environmentsinstantiated from them and the information about the activity withineach environment.

An example manner of revising an environment specification documentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated inFIG. 4. Initially, configuration module 122 accesses an environmentspecification document 240 at step 410. For example, a user may selectan environment specification document 240 from document storage system142 via the configuration module. Proposed changes to the environmentspecification document are entered at step 420. For example, a user mayenter proposed changes to a copy of the environment specificationdocument using editor module 212.

Assessment module 216 predicts the impact of applying the proposedchanges at step 430. For example, the assessment module mayautomatically determine or update the predicted impact in real-time inresponse to the user making changes to the environment specificationdocument in the editor.

The assessment module may use dependency data 262 to determine whichenvironments were created from the specification document and whichapplications running in those environments would be affected. If theenvironment specification document includes one or more otherenvironment specification documents, the assessment module may determinedependencies among the documents, and the relation between thosedocuments and elements of environments created from them, by analyzingthe documents using conventional or other techniques (e.g., byidentifying “include” statements within the documents to map outhierarchical structure of the specification).

The assessment module may take into account whether updates to resourcesin a running environment will happen in a destructive or non-destructivemanner. A destructive change to a resource is a change that, whenapplied (e.g., by the orchestration engine), causes the resource to bedeleted and a new resource created. All data relating to the existingresource will be lost. A non-destructive change can be made to anexisting resource in place. For example, consider an environmentspecification document that describes one server resource. Adding avolume to the server resource would be a non-destructive change. Theexisting server resource remains intact and will have a newly mountedvolume. But, changing the image identifier for the server resource is adestructive change and will cause the existing server resource to bedeleted and a new one created.

In addition, the assessment module may estimate the severity of theimpact using a model based on activity data 264. For example, a smallchange that affects thousands of users may be considered more severethan a large change that only affects a few users. The severity of theimpact may depend on several factors including: whether changes aredestructive or non-destructive, the number of environments affected, theapplications and processes running on the affected environments, thenumber of users actively using an affected environment, the importanceof data on affected resources, the criticality of the affected resourcesand usage, and security implications. In an example embodiment, theassessment module may cross-reference applications that would be takenoffline for a period of time with activity data indicating the usage ofthe application to determine one or more impact metrics. For example,the embodiment may determine the expected number of users affected,number of transactions affected, loss in gross revenue, or the like thatwould result from taking a retail sales application offline for theamount of time historically required for such changes. An embodimentthat estimates the severity of the impact based on activity informationfor the environment has the advantage of providing a user (e.g., amiddleware developer), who may lack direct knowledge of the operation ofthe environment, with an assessment of the end-to-end impact of aproposed change.

At step 440, a determination is made whether to adjust the proposedchanges based on the predicted impact. If the result of thedetermination is to adjust the proposed changes, processing returns tostep 420. Otherwise, processing proceeds to step 450. At step 450, therevised environment specification document(s) 240 may be saved. Forexample, a new version of the document(s) may be stored in documentstorage system 240.

An embodiment in which the assessment module automatically provides animpact assessment in response to changes entered in the editor has theadvantage of facilitating revisions to the document, since the user maypreview the impact of a potential change to an environment specificationwhile that change is being made and before the changed document issaved. For example, a user may preview the impact of what-if scenariosrepresented by changes to the document since the document was lastsaved. The user may receive guidance to help determine whether theproposed change is “safe” (e.g., has low impact risk).

An illustration of an example user interface indicating a predictedimpact of a proposed change to an environment specification documentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated inFIG. 5. In particular, an environment document (“3-Tier-Cert 3.5”) hasbeen loaded into an editor via user interface 502. The user interfaceprovides a graphical depiction of the topology of an environmentdescribed by the document. The environment includes networks 512 (e.g.,Cleveland Network, RTP Network, Austin Network, etc.). The Clevelandnetwork includes application server 520, running application 522, andWeb Server 530 including web modules 532 and 534. The RTP networkincludes database servers 540 and 542.

The user proposes deleting web module 534 (e.g., by clicking on themodule's node in the graph and selecting delete button 550). Inresponse, the user is advised on the impact of the change, if it were tobe saved and subsequently applied to the environment created from theoriginal document.

In particular, the configuration module determines an impact of theproposed change and provides guidance by displaying confirmation dialogbox 552. The dialog box informs the user that the environmentspecification document (the “blueprint”) was used to create anenvironment (“Prod”); the selected component supports a mission criticalapplication (“JKE”) used by 23,000 customers; and the assessed impactseverity of saving the change and subsequently applying the changeddocument to the “Prod” environment would be “high.” This severityassessment may be color coded, expressed numerically, or in any othermanner. The user may then cancel or accept the proposed change via thedialog box. In addition, the user interface may allow the user todisplay a list of any changes to the document (e.g., changes up to thelast save operation applied to the document). The list may indicate theseverity of the impact (e.g., “Low”, “Medium”, “High”, etc.) from thechanges, and/or whether the changes are destructive or non-destructive.

An example manner of applying a revised environment specificationdocument according to an embodiment of the present invention isillustrated in FIG. 6. A user may access a revised environmentspecification document 240 at step 610. For example, a user may selectfrom document storage system 140 a version of an environmentspecification document 240 containing modifications with respect toanother version of the document that was used to create one or moreexisting environments. At step 620, assessment module 216 predicts theimpact of applying the modified environment specification document toone or more existing environments (e.g., environments created or updatedfrom another version of the document). At step 630, a determination ismade as to whether the predicted impact of applying the modifieddocument to one or more existing environments is acceptable. If thepredicted impact is acceptable, apply module 214 may apply (e.g., viaorchestration and deployment tools 124) the modified document to one ormore existing environments at step 640. Accordingly, a user may obtainthe results of an impact analysis after changes to an environmentspecification document have been saved, but before they are provisioned(applied to an environment).

An example user interface indicating a predicted impact of applying arevised environment specification document according to an embodiment ofthe present invention is illustrated in FIG. 7. User interface 702provides a graphical display depicting the relationships between anenvironment specification document 240, environments 150 created fromit, applications 156 running within those environments, and the impact(e.g., the usage or criticality of those applications). The user mayelect to view chains of dependencies that include selected items fromthe environment list and application list to filter the displayed chainsof dependencies. In particular, the display includes a user-selectedfull-stack environment specification document 710 (“3-Tier-Cert 3.5”),an environment list 720, an application list 730, and an assessment ofthe impact 740. The display indicates the following dependencies:environment specification document 710 was used to create runningfull-stack environments 722 (“Integration_EmploymentPortal”) and 724(Staging_Mobile_External”), environment 722 runs applications 732(“Payroll Web Admin”) and 734 (“Payroll_Trans_Record”), and the impact740 of a potential change affecting application 732. The impact isdesignated “High” because, e.g., the assessment module has identifiedapplication 732 as a mission critical service.

It will be appreciated that the embodiments described above andillustrated in the drawings represent only a few of the many ways ofimplementing embodiments for assessing computing environment changesusing specification documents.

The environment of the present invention embodiments may include anynumber of computer or other processing systems (e.g., client or end-usersystems, server systems, etc.) and storage systems (e.g., file systems,databases, or other repositories), arranged in any desired fashion,where the present invention embodiments may be applied to any desiredtype of computing environment (e.g., cloud computing, client-server,network computing, mainframe, stand-alone systems, etc.). The computeror other processing systems employed by the present inventionembodiments may be implemented by any number of any personal or othertype of computer or processing system (e.g., desktop, laptop, PDA,mobile devices, etc.), and may include any commercially availableoperating system and any combination of commercially available andcustom software (e.g., database software, communications software,etc.). These systems may include any types of monitors and input devices(e.g., keyboard, mouse, voice recognition, touch screen, etc.) to enterand/or view information.

It is to be understood that the software of the present inventionembodiments may be implemented in any desired computer language andcould be developed by one of ordinary skill in the computer arts basedon the functional descriptions contained in the specification and flowcharts illustrated in the drawings. Further, any references herein ofsoftware performing various functions generally refer to computersystems or processors performing those functions under software control.The computer systems of the present invention embodiments mayalternatively be implemented by any type of hardware and/or otherprocessing circuitry.

The various functions of the computer or other processing systems may bedistributed in any manner among any number of software and/or hardwaremodules or units, processing or computer systems and/or circuitry, wherethe computer or processing systems may be disposed locally or remotelyof each other and communicate via any suitable communications medium(e.g., LAN, WAN, intranet, Internet, hardwire, modem connection,wireless, etc.). For example, the functions of the present inventionembodiments may be distributed in any manner among the variousend-user/client and server systems, and/or any other intermediaryprocessing devices. The software and/or algorithms described above andillustrated in the flow charts may be modified in any manner thataccomplishes the functions described herein. In addition, the functionsin the flow charts or description may be performed in any order thataccomplishes a desired operation.

The software of the present invention embodiments may be available on anon-transitory computer useable medium (e.g., magnetic or opticalmediums, magneto-optic mediums, floppy diskettes, CD-ROM, DVD, memorydevices, etc.) of a stationary or portable program product apparatus ordevice for use with stand-alone systems or systems connected by anetwork or other communications medium.

The communication network may be implemented by any number of any typeof communications network (e.g., LAN, WAN, Internet, intranet, VPN,etc.). The computer or other processing systems of the present inventionembodiments may include any conventional or other communications devicesto communicate over the network via any conventional or other protocols.The computer or other processing systems may utilize any type ofconnection (e.g., wired, wireless, etc.) for access to the network.Local communication media may be implemented by any suitablecommunication media (e.g., local area network (LAN), hardwire, wirelesslink, intranet, etc.).

The system may employ any number of any conventional or other databases,data stores or storage structures (e.g., files, databases, datastructures, data or other repositories, etc.) to store information. Thedatabase system may be implemented by any number of any conventional orother databases, data stores or storage structures (e.g., files,databases, data structures, data or other repositories, etc.) to storeinformation. The database system may be included within or coupled tothe server and/or client systems. The database systems and/or storagestructures may be remote from or local to the computer or otherprocessing systems, and may store any desired data.

The present invention embodiments may employ any number of any type ofuser interface (e.g., Graphical User Interface (GUI), command-line,prompt, etc.) for obtaining or providing information, where theinterface may include any information arranged in any fashion. Theinterface may include any number of any types of input or actuationmechanisms (e.g., buttons, icons, fields, boxes, links, etc.) disposedat any locations to enter/display information and initiate desiredactions via any suitable input devices (e.g., mouse, keyboard, etc.).The interface screens may include any suitable actuators (e.g., links,tabs, etc.) to navigate between the screens in any fashion.

The present invention embodiments are not limited to the specific tasksor algorithms described above, but may be utilized for assessingcomputing environment changes using specification documents of any typefor any type of computing environment and applications.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”,“comprising”, “includes”, “including”, “has”, “have”, “having”, “with”and the like, when used in this specification, specify the presence ofstated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/orcomponents, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or moreother features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components,and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended toinclude any structure, material, or act for performing the function incombination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. Thedescription of the present invention has been presented for purposes ofillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Theembodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

1. A method of configuring a computing system comprising: analyzing anenvironment specification document specifying a proposed configurationwith changes to an environment for the computing system and describingan infrastructure, middleware, and application elements; correlating theenvironment specification document with an environment instantiated onthe computing system from the environment specification document priorto the changes; determining in real-time an impact of the changes in theproposed configuration on the environment instantiated on the computingsystem prior to implementing the changes and in response to entry ofeach proposed configuration change within the environment specificationdocument; and configuring the computing system in accordance with theproposed configuration based on the determined impact.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the environment specification document includes anotherenvironment specification document.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereindetermining an impact of the changes in the proposed configurationcomprises: determining an impact of the changes in the proposedconfiguration on the instantiated environment based on one or more froma group of dependencies of the instantiated environment, usage patternswithin the instantiated environment, and value of transactions performedwithin the instantiated environment and dependent environments.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein analyzing the environment specificationdocument comprises: editing the environment specification document toinclude one or more proposed configuration changes to the environmentfor the computing system.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein determiningan impact of the changes in the proposed configuration comprises:determining a severity of the impact of the changes in the proposedconfiguration.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining an impactof the changes in the proposed configuration comprises: analyzingresults accumulated from instantiations of prior proposed configurationsto learn iteratively from the impacts from those prior proposedconfigurations; and determining the impact of the changes in theproposed configuration based on the accumulated learned impacts from theprior proposed configurations.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereincorrelating the environment specification document with an environmentinstantiated on the computing system from the environment specificationdocument comprises accessing information associating the environmentspecification document and the environment recorded automatically inresponse to instantiating the environment.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein correlating the environment specification document with anenvironment instantiated on the computing system from the environmentspecification document comprises determining dependencies among aplurality of other environment specification documents included in theenvironment specification document.
 9. A system for configuring acomputing system comprising: at least one processor configured to:analyze an environment specification document specifying a proposedconfiguration with changes to an environment for the computing systemand describing an infrastructure, middleware, and application elements;correlate the environment specification document with an environmentinstantiated on the computing system from the environment specificationdocument prior to the changes; determine in real-time an impact of thechanges in the proposed configuration on the environment instantiated onthe computing system prior to implementing the changes and in responseto entry of each proposed configuration change within the environmentspecification document; and configure the computing system in accordancewith the proposed configuration based on the determined impact.
 10. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein the environment specification documentincludes another environment specification document.
 11. The system ofclaim 9, wherein determining an impact of the changes in the proposedconfiguration comprises: determining an impact of the changes in theproposed configuration on the instantiated environment based on one ormore from a group of dependencies of the instantiated environment, usagepatterns within the instantiated environment, and value of transactionsperformed within the instantiated environment and dependentenvironments.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein analyzing theenvironment specification document comprises: editing the environmentspecification document to include one or more proposed configurationchanges to the environment for the computing system.
 13. The system ofclaim 9, wherein determining an impact of the changes in the proposedconfiguration comprises: determining a severity of the impact of thechanges in the proposed configuration.
 14. The system of claim 9,wherein determining an impact of the changes in the proposedconfiguration comprises: analyzing results accumulated frominstantiations of prior proposed configurations to learn iterativelyfrom the impacts from those prior proposed configurations; anddetermining the impact of the changes in the proposed configurationbased on the accumulated learned impacts from the prior proposedconfigurations.
 15. A computer program product for configuring acomputing system comprising: a computer readable storage medium havingcomputer readable program code embodied therewith for execution on aprocessing system, the computer readable program code comprisingcomputer readable program code configured to: analyze an environmentspecification document specifying a proposed configuration with changesto an environment for the computing system and describing aninfrastructure, middleware, and application elements; correlate theenvironment specification document with an environment instantiated onthe computing system from the environment specification document priorto the changes; determine in real-time an impact of the changes in theproposed configuration on the environment instantiated on the computingsystem prior to implementing the changes and in response to entry ofeach proposed configuration change within the environment specificationdocument; and configure the computing system in accordance with theproposed configuration based on the determined impact.
 16. The computerprogram product of claim 15, wherein the environment specificationdocument includes another environment specification document.
 17. Thecomputer program product of claim 15, wherein determining an impact ofthe changes in the proposed configuration comprises: determining animpact of the changes in the proposed configuration on the instantiatedenvironment based on one or more from a group of dependencies of theinstantiated environment, usage patterns within the instantiatedenvironment, and value of transactions performed within the instantiatedenvironment and dependent environments.
 18. The computer program productof claim 15, wherein analyzing the environment specification documentcomprises: editing the environment specification document to include oneor more proposed configuration changes to the environment for thecomputing system.
 19. The computer program product of claim 15, whereindetermining an impact of the changes in the proposed configurationcomprises: determining a severity of the impact of the changes in theproposed configuration.
 20. The computer program product of claim 15,wherein determining an impact of the changes in the proposedconfiguration comprises: analyzing results accumulated frominstantiations of prior proposed configurations to learn iterativelyfrom the impacts from those prior proposed configurations; anddetermining the impact of the changes in the proposed configurationbased on the accumulated learned impacts from the prior proposedconfigurations.